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On KQED this morning, they had a really good panel discussion about the new medicare benefit. One of the panelists said that he thought the administration's (read: neoconservatives) long-term strategy was to cut "untouchable" benefits like social security. He said that the way that they are going about that strategy is to cut taxes and increase spending, thus creating a fake fiscal crisis. Under that crisis environment, the public will accept cuts to social security that would be unthinkable during good times.
It all seems a bit too conspiracy theory to me. People seem just as likely to hold onto their benefits more tightly during hard times as they would be to let them go. In Japan, for example, even during a long term depression people have been fighting against government cutbacks. In france people have waged strikes for shorter work weeks even in the face of a soft economy.
So, while I don't but into the guys line of reasoning, it's certainly an interesting, and logically sound, way to explain the perplexing behavior of the bush administration.
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